This is a question I stumbled across recently and although I certainly love fansubs, I'm not sure I could say with confidence that they ultimately help the anime creators financially.

On the fansub side, not only do fansubs obviously come out much closer to the Japanese release date but I've also found that they tend to have significantly better translations than their "professional" counterparts. In fact, my last FLCL DVD is completely unopened because although I loved the fansub version, I found the translations in the official American release to be a great disservice to the series. In addition, fansubs are famous for including critical cultural and language notes that are completely lost in a direct translation.

On the official release side I don't have much to say other than that these are the releases that pay the Japanese creators for their work. Ultimately, this is the only way most anime creators can earn money from American audiences and I don't think there's anyone here that doesn't want anime studios to be able to earn a living.

But do the fansubs help the anime studios? Certainly there is a great deal of exposure and fanbase created by fansub releases that far excedes that of the current professional releases (I'm sure everyone here has felt burned for paying $30 for a DVD with 2 TV shows on it) but at the same time, how does that ultimately translate into sales? Do fansubs help or hurt anime?

http://anime.osiristeam.net/thoughts/fansubs-killing-the-anime-industry-yeah-right/

Hmm yeah I guess it could go either way. On one hand I use fansubs to watch and preview series that either aren't out in the US yet or (big reason now) I don't have the money right now to buy the dvd releases. And I do feal for you $30 for 2 shows is a bit steep. I tend to wait until the box set comes out, and then wait even longer until it gets cheaper. Example I'd love to buy the Samurai Champloo series, but at $126 for the box set it's way too steep when compared to my Evangelion, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop box sets each for around $30.
So in a way I could say that they will eventually help the anime industry, since i have the eps on my pc I'll keep watching them and remembering "I want to buy this when I can". But at the same time I'm not going to be buying any anime for a while until i finish my bachelors and get into a career.

This debate has been going on for eons. The reason why I watch fansubs is because their translation is as honest as the fans are, you don't see them trying to change the genders of the characters (*cough* sailor moon *cough*), the sexual orientation of the characters (*cough* card captor sakura *cough*), the music (*cough* initial d *cough*), well...you get the picture. Hell the original Americanized version of CCS had its episode count halved. Because so many people hate Americanized anime like I do they stick to fansubs. It's free, anyways.

I not only download anime for free, I download a lot of my games for free, just to see if they're good. If they're good I might go out and actually buy it. Without the free downloads people would be too scared to go out and buy the products. They released teasers, trailers, previews, demos and whatnot but sometimes the samples just don't speak for the entire product themselves.

I read somewhere on a blog a few months ago (I'm not sure if this was an official report or some bloggers rant) but because fansubs are free and because they spread anime outside of Japan it allows people to go out and buy wallscrolls, figures and other anime merchandise because they have the money to spend, which otherwise would have been spent on the anime DVD's. I can say this from personal, first-hand experience because I have bought anime merchandise because the anime I downloaded was so awesome.

Yes, I agree fansubs have popularized anime outside of Japan, and it's also true it's hurting the American anime industry. For me, personally, if I had the money to spend (which hopefully I will eventually) I would download the fansubs like I am now, watch the entire series, and decide whether or not that series is worth buying. And when I buy, I'll buy from sellers overseas in Japan, not the Americanized crap here in North America.

Some broadcasters have finally caught on that DVD's and other physical mediums are obsolete; the Internet disseminates just about everything more efficiently and fansubs is just one example of it. I've never used it, but services such as paying for a subscribed channel to view English translations of animes that was aired just last night in Japan sound good for me. If they can broadcast them at extremely high quality - maybe even higher than the ones aired in Japan, then I think more people will flock to those services. For me, personally, I still wouldn't use it because I would like to have the collection in my room. Unless it was possible to download the broadcast, I wouldn't use the service. Instead, I would go to buy the DVD's. I just want to have it so I can watch it over again if I so choose to, and for those animes I REALLY like, well, I just want to own them.

Once I start working at EA I'll spend my cash on buying my favorite animes that I currently have fansubs on.

I think that in an ideal world (as far as I'm concerned), Japanese TV shows (including anime) would be sold online at a similar rate to American TV shows on demand. Using Amazon and a recent episode of "The Office" as an example, I would expect to pay $2 per 30 minute segment. Even with subtitling included, I don't see why this should ever go above $3 per episode. In addition, I strongly feel that fansub versions should remain available for all the reasons stated above as long as the profits are directed towards whatever American company purchased the rights. Ideally, the fansubs would have the money to purchase the US rights and distribute but as that is almost never the case, the ability for their work to be enjoyed after the official US purchase of the rights to the series is the best I can come up with.

Would you buy fansub at $3 an episode, getting the quality you expect from fansubs but knowing that the money would go to whoever bought the rights in the US and a portion of that would be sent to the creating anime studio? I certainly would. I think it's a market that is long overdue.

Fansubs help the industry. It allows for people to watch what is usually a more pure version of the anime, often months/years before they reach the states.

I will be honest, I don't buy Anime DvDs mostly due to storage, and the fact a computer can load the same stuff with such a smaller amount of room needed. I have 2 16 gigabyte memory cards I use for my psp full of anime. Plug it into my tv and watch, no needing to constantly change dvds, and quality is good enough for cartoon characters anyway.

What I do, is i buy merchandise from the Anime I enjoy. I even go as far as to look up who the authors of the anime are, and constantly looking for artwork from the actual illustrator of the manga. I even make bad anime music videos and upload them to youtube. More people see the anime then otherwise wouldn't and look it up themselves. I have personally watched a good dozen animes just by following a cookie trail on youtube anime music videos I enjoyed. This way I have no guilt for what I do. I support the industry within my means. Long live the fansubs.

I like the fansubs for mostly the same reasons, I prefer the the truer feeling I receive watching them. It can sometimes be a toss up for me when they finally do reach the US..assuming they do of course..as to whether I'll skip the dubbing or if I really like the anime and check out both. In doing so you can find either a new respect for the anime you like or find another reason to hate dubbings.

For example, Funimation, imo, used to be pretty horrible at dubbing back in the DBZ days and now they've turned it around and are putting out really good stuff. But if I've already seen the show with fansubs and if those particularly excellent, I'll just skip the dub because I used to be the type that would hope for a great dubbing so that I could watch it americanized, but after watching so many misses with the voice acting I can't do that anymore. There are so few anime that come over here and actually get a great dubbing. Although I will buy the DVD of the anime that I like the dubbing for or get them off of iTunes if available.

More to the point I think fansubs do help in the exposure department but hurt the sales side of it. If 9 out of 10 people are skipping the dub due to terrible jobs done with it, then of course the sales are gonna hurt. Why rush something out or not put in the effort to make the anime that much better for the audience to enjoy dubbed? Not all studios do this and I'm well aware of that, but those specific studios aren't getting all of your favorite anime either.

For me, I think the fansubs help anime. I am not saying this because I am a fansub
fan... as I can't watch raw ones. I'm saying this because fansubs help advertise the anime to other countries, to those who do not understand Japanese.

If there were no fansubs, the population of those watching anime will be few. I, for one, became an anime fan because I got to watch and understand it. Animes do not
only get their income from DVDs and TV shows, but also from merchandise like
t-shirts, mugs, figures, and other kinds of those stuff.

Also, I think that the number of people buying DVDs of the anime will remain basically the same, even if there were no fansubs available. People who do not understand the language will not buy a non-subbed DVD, I do not know if there are dubbed DVDs out there.

For me a fansub is like free advertising!

I'm appreciate all fansubs group, who always try their best to translate anime in english, i don't understand japanese so i don't know right or wrong they translate even through i can see that they also love anime and devote most of their freetime to do this work, and i feel bad if we don't think about their best and support them !

if i can understand japanese, i also want to do something like they do!so don't think bad about them!

Even to this day there are many Anime series that will NEVER make it to america, due to the sheer cost of licensing and whatnot. Examples would be Macross 7, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, gintama.. If people did not rip these series in Japan and put them up on the internet, you would have no choice but to order the DVDs from Japan for hundreads of dollers.

Fansubs key role is to bring inexpensive awareness to the anime world. I hope however, that the people who find a series that seriously clicks for them, they buy it. If they never buy it, and just rely on the fansubs forever, then that will hurt and impact the industry.

Japan's industry is all messed up, and it seriously needs to be fixed. They charge WAY WAY too much for way to little in Japan. Anime fans are completely and utterly raped for their dedication.

America however is fine, maybe a bit on the cheap'o side.

I've found fansubs to actually help the industry. Of course it depends on how you look at it, but this is how I do.

For myself, I purchase a large quantity of anime and over the years I've purchased some really big duds. I almost see fansubs as almost a preview system, in which I can view a show before it's released. Hell, I've actually increased my purchases thanks to fansubs. No, their not legal and I don't condone people downloading full series and burning them onto DVD/Blu-Ray or whatever, but I personally think a few episodes or so help someone get a great feel for a show. Hell, it's helped me determine what I want to buy in the future. Especially for myself, in which the state I live in, you can't really rent anime anywhere so you pretty much have to guess if a series is good or not by buying it. While it's not bad, I'd much rather avoid the hassle and gather some information about it before making the purchase.

I also have to comment on what has been mentioned quite a few times and that's series that don't get licensed. I do agree that it does help promote a series and also allows us to see what it was like. There are many great series over the years that I probably would of never had the pleasure of viewing if not for fansubs. I've even found that if a series finds it's way stateside a few years later, I still end up purchasing it even if I have watched the full thing as well.

That's a good question, and I think It has been answered alright, too.
In terms of direct finantial help to the industry, fansubs do nothing, since most people won't buy the anime once watched the fansubbed version (be it because they did not like it or because they don't have the money).
But fansubs do help industry by making the people know about the anime, outside Japan, and before it's released in the rest of the world. Besides, people who does not have the money to buy the dvds, might probably have money enough to buy merchandising, which can be found at cheaper prices (and can be displayed to the world... heh heh heh).
Particularly, in my country (I live in America too, but the continent, South America, specifically) original anime dvds are totally ou of reach of students (even university students), while merchandising is not. Besides, the available titles here in Chile are quite few compared with the actual numbers available in Japan or USA.
So, long live the fansubs

That's an interesting point that some of you have brought up, about fan-subs fueling sales for paraphernalia. I wonder how big of a profit margin companies have on the sale of merchandise as well as DVDs.

Let's say I end up loving 2 out of every 10 fansubbed series I watch - enough to buy the DVD boxset. Will the revenue from those 2 boxsets be enough profit?

I also concur with the sentiment that it would be a shame if fansubs were banned or disappeared. There's a lot of good stuff out there, that is only accessible by fansubs.

Help i think. your always going to have the type who just downloads and watches but never buys, but a good majority use it for finding out shows which may interest them and purchase once licensed

Fansubs make it possible for non-Japanese animé fans to watch an animé serie.
When they like it, it is highly possible that they'll buy the DVD.(a real fan would do it) So I guess fansubs aren't hurting the animé. Fansubs often sub the serie with more quality than a professional subber. A fansub subs the animé with the view of an animé fan so they are more reliable than a normal subber who does it for his loan. A normal subber subs for the most part of their job normal movies and series. Non animé. So they don't have the same view as a anime fansubber.

So I guess fansubs are a participant of an anime succes.

I believe fansubs help anime. An anime I saw recently called Shikabane Hime was all the proof I needed. Because Funimation was so aggressive at stopping the fansubs of this anime I believe it killed a great amount of the popularity of the show.

I believe that fansubs help shows become popular which in the end help DVD sales. If the fansubs are killed then so is the popularity and therefore the DVD sales go done. That is my opinion anyway.